UH WARRIOR FOOTBALL
Warriors happy to be hitting
Those new protective "shells" the Hawaii football team wore under their practice jerseys for the first three days of practice were pretty cool.
Nothing, though, beats the real thing.
The Warriors put on the pads for the first time in fall camp at yesterday afternoon's practice, which produced a few loud pops even though hitting was generally limited.
"Any time you've been out of the game five months and you put the helmet on and shoulder pads and get ready to go, that's exciting," linebacker Solomon Elimimian said. "A lot of positions are open and a lot of guys are competing for those positions, so the intensity is even higher. And we've got Florida (on Aug. 30). We know the intensity has to be up every play."
Not surprisingly, linebacker Blaze Soares was involved in one of the day's biggest hits.
Soares met slot receiver Aaron Bain coming across the middle, and even though he pulled up on the hit the impact was enough to pop Bain's helmet off.
The bottom line, though, Bain held on to the ball.
"We all expect to get one of those every now and then, but it's all good. That means every one's practicing at a high level. You always have to look out for Blaze," Bain said with a smile. "The job is to catch the rock, so I had to go up and get it."
The Warriors were to practice from 8:30 to 11:30 a.m. today and tomorrow to conclude the opening week of camp.
"We're right where we should be," head coach Greg McMackin said. "We've been getting a little better. We're not close to where we want to be, but we're moving along as scheduled."